The Morning Briefing: Evil Teachers’ Unions Have Completed Their Chicago Flex

Top O’ the Briefing

Happy Wednesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Teggero had become a Canasta Club favorite thanks to his complete mastery of the “Mystery Ingredient Bundt Cake.”

Programming Note: I’m headed to Michigan to celebrate my mother’s 85th and my daughter’s 25th birthdays, so I will be taking a few days off. Kevin, Chris, and Megan will be filling in for me while I enjoy quality family time and breakfast beers.

This wasn’t the biggest news story yesterday, but it does offer a good snapshot of the state of leftist politics in the United States of America at present. It’s also not about Hunter Biden, so our streak continues.

You are most welcome, America.

When I first began writing about politics, my two main focuses were liberal bias in the media and school choice. The latter led me to a deep and abiding loathing of teachers’ unions. I’ve been saying and writing for years that the National Education Association is the most evil labor organization on the planet. All of the teachers’ unions are evil, but the NEA is the biggest, so I point to it first.

The teachers’ unions weren’t able to hide their nastiness from the public during the COVID pandemic. They did what they’ve always done — put their interests above those of the students and, as we are now finding out, doomed those kids to being forever behind.

One of the more bizarre things we saw back then was the far-left regime in Chicago battling with the teachers’ union there to let the kids go back to school. Then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot — an avowed progressive — wanted to open the schools, while the Chicago Teachers Union wanted to stay on permanent vacation, the kids be damned.

In a classic display of just how much political power the unions have, the HISTORIC FIRST (Black lesbian) Lightfoot was bounced after one term and replaced by — you guessed it — a teachers’ union thug.

Hizzoner the Union Thug Brandon Johnson recently got rid of the last of the problems from the Lightfoot era, Dr. Allison Arwady, which Rick wrote about:

Prior to running for mayor, Johnson was a Chicago Teachers Union organizer, and the CTU had serious clashes with former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Arwady over the reopening of schools during the pandemic.

Writing about Johnson’s run-off victory over former Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, I noted that the city was now under the thumb of the CTU.

A case could be made that Chicago was always under the CTU’s thumb. High-profile Democrats anywhere don’t get where they are without the support of the teachers’ unions; Lightfoot and Arwady just happened to step out of line. When that happened, the CTU made sure that it flexed hard as soon as it got the opportunity so everyone could be reminded of just who was in charge.

Several years ago, I was invited by the Manhattan Institute to a small dinner gathering in Los Angeles. The guest speaker detailed the power that the California Teachers Union had. It is the wealthiest and most powerful political lobby in the most populous state in the country. And, by the way, the NEA isn’t just the largest teachers’ union. It’s the largest labor union in the United States. There’s a lot of coerced dues money to be spent there.

I know I’ve brought this up more than once recently, but I also said I would keep bringing it up. School choice is the only way to combat the overwhelming power of the teachers’ unions. Thankfully, a lot of progress has been made on that front in several red states. The unions have owned the blue states for too long, but kneecapping them wherever they can be kneecapped is a good thing.

A very good thing.

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The Mailbag of Magnificence contributions can be sent to [email protected].

The Mailbag of Magnificence

Let us begin with this from Joe:

As always you leave me with my head shaking and a smile on my face. One pocketbook bratwurst with all the trimmings to go please.

The House continues to open one can of worms after another concerning the inept Biden Administration. The southern border fiasco is one that should be concerning to all Americans. Today and for many years to come. There is no telling exactly what has come across the border in the last two years. I can only pray that some of the eighty one million voters that are supposed to have voted for the Vegetable in Chief have come to their senses and will not vote for President Dementia again. I also pray that two more years will not be too late for our nation.

Mr. Kruiser you are the best.

Thanks for all you do to combat the evil that is on the left.

Thank you for that, Joe. Yeah, the existential dread does creep up on me more often than I’d like. I try to make sure that it doesn’t linger for more than a few minutes. They want us to be demoralized and panicked. I promise I’ll be here going off on the lefties until they drag me to the gulag.

My dearest Morning Maestro,

I know I can rely on you for clear-headed observation of current events. That’s why I’m so perplexed by your title “Garbage Indictments Could Give Trump Electoral Superpowers.”

The people who hate Trump – including apparently a majority of swing state swing voters and suburban wine moms – take these indictments as affirmation of, and permission for, their pathological Trump hatred. There is nothing the swamp could do to Trump that would change their minds.

If the Swamp were to crucify Trump on a cross the wine moms would pop the popcorn.

We may nominate Trump just to feel good about making a point and pushing back, but there is not the slightest chance that he will ever again win national election.

I’m sorry to be a downer but we need to be realistic. We can either run a candidate with a chance to win or we can run a candidate to vent our spleen.

I wrote what I wrote because I have run into a lot of people who were completely over Trump but are getting sympathetic toward him because of the indictments. It’s only anecdotal evidence, but I’m an opinion writer and not a journalist, so I can indulge in such things. As for your “suburban wine moms,” I don’t know that a case could be made that they would vote Republican if the nominee weren’t Trump. Anyone who’s afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome is also suffering from Republican Derangement Syndrome. There’s no cure. You don’t see the Lincoln Project championing a Republican alternative to Trump — they’re supporting Biden. I know the conventional wisdom is that Trump can’t win the general election. That may very well be, but I’m out of the prediction game after last year’s midterms debacle.

We will finish with this from Wanda in Montana:

I have to say I don’t always get the SineQuaNonSequiturs, but you had some great alliteration going on in this one:

“Lyndoria was thought the neighborhood odd bird because she had a fondness for dipping dumplings in discount brandy..”

My high school English teacher would be proud of you!

Whew! I’m glad you liked that one because it took me forever to come up with it. Some nights are rough, but I’m committed now (or I should be committed). I think “discount brandy” really brings that together. Is discount brandy even a thing?

Thanks to all who wrote in and I’ll see you next week!